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Thursday, May 9, 2013

INNOVATIONS IN READING PRIZE WINNERS 2013

Each year, the National Book Foundation awards a number of prizes of up
to $2,500 each to individuals and institutions—or partnerships between
the two—that have developed innovative means of creating and sustaining a
lifelong love of reading.

From the National Book Website: 2013 Innovations in Reading Prize Winners!

City National Bank for Reading Is the Way Up

Los Angeles, CAwww.readingisthewayup.org
www.facebook.com/readingisthewayup
City National Bank believes that a good education and the ability to
learn throughout one’s career are vital to success in today’s world―and
it all starts with reading. Reading Is the Way Up® was started in 2002 to address the plight of
school libraries and the lack of current and compelling books available
to students. To date, the program has placed over 170,000 books into the
hands of students. City National has done this through strategic
partnerships with Barnes and Noble and Reading Is Fundamental, with the
goal of promoting book ownership.
In 2005, a literacygrant component was added to the program. Since then, more than $600,000 in grantshas
been awarded to elementary, middle, and high school teachers in the
five states where City National has offices. In 2011, school author
visits were added to the program, and each student in attendance gets a
signed copy of the author's book. In addition, City National colleagues
are encouraged to participate in the program and are given paid time off
to do so.
The Reading Is the Way Up® program has reached over 100,000 children
and continues to look for creative ways to expand without losing the
program’s focus.

Little Free Library

In 2010, when Todd Bol and Rick Brooks first shared ideas about what
was to become the Little Free Library movement, the idea was simple—a
box of books that looked like a one-room school house with a sign that
said “Free Books.” Posted in his front yard by the St. Croix River in
Hudson, Wisconsin, the first model was a memorial to Bol’s mother, a
teacher who loved to read. But the curiosity and delight of neighbors
suggested there was something more to it. The phrase “Take a Book,
Return a Book” explained it pretty well, the name Little Free Library
stuck, and the mission became clear—to promote a sense of community,
reading for children, literacy for adults, and libraries around the
world. Sense of community trumped everything. Books became the currency
of friendship, and constructing the free neighborhood book exchanges
themselves emerged as a new American folk craft.
By late 2011, nearly 400 Little Free Libraries had been installed in
Minnesota, Wisconsin, and several other states. Within two more years,
the total had swelled to between 6,000 and 8,000 in forty-two countries,
from Ghana, Uganda, and Nigeria to Japan, Australia, Brazil, and a
dozen European nations. Millions of people have opened the doors of
Little Free Libraries to find good books donated by their neighbors and
contributed their favorites for others to read.

The Uni Project

The Uni is a portable reading room for New York City. Conceived of
and run by Leslie and Sam Davol, the purpose of the Uni is to provide a
new kind of amenity for city residents, while fostering a stronger, more
prominent culture of reading and learning at street level.
The Uni consists of lightweight cubes that stack to create an
attractive place to gather. Cubes also serve as shelves, providing
access to high-quality books and hands-on learning activities for the
public to browse and read. Benches provide seating, and experienced
volunteers act as hosts. What happens next is simple: people gather
around, pull books off shelves, sit down, and read. But the effect is
profound: people are transformed into readers on a kind of stage.
Neighborhoods are transformed into places where the value of reading and
learning is recognized, promoted, and shared.
The Uni was launched with a crowd-funding campaign and put into
service on September 11, 2011. In 2012, operating as a nonprofit, Leslie
and Sam deployed the Uni ten times in seven different New York City
neighborhoods, at times partnering with the Queens and Brooklyn public
libraries. They also shipped a second Uni to Almaty, Kazakhstan, for
deployment there by the U.S. Consulate, funded by the U.S. State
Department.
In 2013, with the support of foundations and a growing list of
contributors, the project will more than double the number of NYC
deployments, continuing to prioritize emerging public spaces and
underserved communities. Leslie and Sam’s goal is to establish a regular
circuit for the Uni and involve a growing number of educational
partners—teachers, libraries, and museums—who want to reach beyond their
walls. The project will also launch a new cart design, created by Uni
architects Höweler + Yoon, which will be offered to neighborhoods and
cities beyond the reach of the Uni in New York.

The Uprise Books Project

The Uprise Books Project was founded in 2011 with a very simple
mission: to encourage underprivileged teens to read by providing them
with new banned and challenged books.
Why banned and challenged books? There are a couple of big hurdles
when it comes to getting teens to read. Simply getting kids access to
books is the first step; kids in poorer neighborhoods tend to have fewer
books in the home, they tend to live further from public libraries, and
they often attend poorly funded schools.
But just giving teens books isn’t enough. Between family obligations
(many are parents themselves), below-standard reading skills, and an
environment that discourages anything close to intellectual activities,
many disadvantaged teens need a better reason to read than simply being
told "it's good for you."
The folks at Uprise believe that the "forbidden fruit" angle of
banned and challenged literature could provide that motivation. Anyone
who’s ever been a teenager knows that one of the best ways to pique
their curiosity about something is to tell them they aren’t allowed to
know about it, so why not use that trait for good? The same kid who
couldn’t care less that the Modern Library calls The Great Gatsby one
of the best novels of the twentieth century might jump at a book
challenged for its “language and sexual references.” And judging by the
feedback Uprise has received after giving books to a few hundred teens,
they think they just might be onto something.

Worldreader

Worldreader is a US and European nonprofit created in 2010 by David
Risher (former Amazon.com executive) and Colin McElwee (former ESADE
Business School’s marketing director) whose mission is to make digital
books (via e-readers and mobile phones) available to children and their
families in the developing world, so millions of people can improve
their lives. Worldreader combines new technologies, the mobile phone
networks, and declining costs to provide immediate access to hundreds of
thousands of local textbooks, storybooks, and international literature.
Via its e-reader programs, Worldreader has delivered over
480,000 e-books, impacting nearly 10,000 children and families in six
sub-Saharan African countries. Those children now read more, read
better, and are improving their communities. In addition, through Worldreader Mobile―a
book application―more than half a million people globally are reading a
wide variety of books, including educational material, health tips,
love stories, prize-winning short stories, children’s books, and
classics, all on a device they already own―their mobile phone. Many of
the books in Worldreader's programs are from African publishers and
authors. When students begin to read, they are more engaged when the
stories in their books are familiar to them. Worldreader partners with
African publishers to make their books available to children in the
e-reader programs, and to everyone through Worldreader Mobile. At the
same time, the literature of the world is of immense interest to
children and adults everywhere. Worldreader's international publishing
partners make their books available at no cost, exposing children and
families everywhere to some of the best-known literature in the world.